Ferry Disaster Has Left South Korea Traumatized and Shamed

ABC News - Ferry Disaster Has Left South Korea Traumatized and Shamed (ABC News)

The entire country of South Korea, which watched a ferry filled with high school students sink on live TV and has followed the futile search for survivors with 24/7 TV coverage, appears to be have been traumatized by the tragedy.

That trauma has been compounded by a collective shame over charges of criminal negligence by much of the ship's crew, inappropriate reactions by government officials and cruel hoaxes following the sinking.

Almost all entertainment programs that include music, comedy or drama have been cancelled. Attendance at movie theaters is off by as much as 40 percent. Fashion shows, sports events, festivals for major cultural events have been put off through May.

Teen Who Gave Life Vest to Fellow Student on Sinking Ferry Is Laid to Rest

“It’s not only the victims and their families but a majority of the general public is suffering from mental shock, sadness, rage, and feeling of helplessness,” wrote an editorial from Seoul Newspaper. “In short, it’s not an exaggeration to say that this entire nation is going through post-traumatic stress disorder.”

"After those nonstop broadcasts, personally this visual of cold water rising in the cabins with trapped kids dying a slow death was haunting me for days. I still cry for them," said Yong-sub Choi, vice president of value, culture and media for an investment company. His company has invested $1 million in a regional fireworks festival planned for early May, but decided to forsake half the investment and postpone it to August in honor of the victims.

The tragedy has riveted and horrified the country from the start. Cameras rushed to the ferry sinking as soon as the news broke and the population was mesmerized as it watched the tragedy unfold with students flailing in the cold water, the boat slowly turning upside down and eventually slipping beneath the surface.

Television viewers have barely looked away since as the rescue efforts were broadcast without any break. The arrival of grief stricken families was recorded along with rough weather that hampered rescue efforts, and eventually the sad retrieval of bodies despite the prayers of a nation.

“It was so depressing, so I intentionally avoided watching TV at first,” said Jieun Kim, a mother of two children living in Seoul. “But it’s addictive. You keep wondering what happened. Gave up on the fourth day, and kept watching. My tears won’t stop. It’s uncontrollable.”

What has also taken a toll on the Korean psyche are the alleged acts of cowardice, callousness and cruel hoaxes.

Eleven of the ferry's crew, including the captain, have been taken into custody for actions that the South Korean president said were "murderous." Others would say craven. In the days after the ferry sank, families were tormented with hoax text messages claiming to be from students trapped in air pockets complaining that they were cold, but still alive. A woman posed as one of the divers trying to rescue the trapped passengers was exposed as a fraud.

A photo of a government official sitting on a chair to eat ramen while the families of the ferry victims were eating on the floor circulated on South Korean social media and criticism poured in. A second official from the ministry of security and public administration came under even more criticism for posing for a self-promoting photo in front of the list of the dead at the gymnasium where families were sheltered. That official was suspended and then allowed to resign.

The response to the sinking has forced the nation to reassess what Korea has become.

South Korea Traumatized, Shamed By Ferry Disaster

A widely shared editorial on social networks from Saturday’s Joongang Ilbo concluded with a scathing self-criticism that, “A nation’s standards and capability is tested when disaster and crisis come by. Our country’s level is a failing grade and of a third-class country.”

“Korea is now depressed," an editorial in Hankyoreh newspaper said. "But for such collective depression to be rightly cured, this atmosphere should not be quickly changed nor forgotten.”

Choi added, "As a father, this burden is deep. I feel responsible for the deaths of those innocent young kids. Our generation have marched forward only looking ahead. It was all economic growth and wealth. We neglected to take effort to mature ethically."

“Koreans are very nationalistic and they take pride in the rapid development of their country. When there’s some problem or anything that reflects poorly on the collective, on the nation or Koreans on the whole, people will get upset about it,” said Daniel Pinkson, head of International Crisis Group in Seoul.

Yellow ribbons have proliferated on Korean social media and the country has held candlelight vigils, but those gestures have gone only so far.

“Koreans want to share everything together," said Sulim Park, public relations manager of Italian shoe brand, Tod’s. The company cancelled three shows and events out of respect for the ferry victims. "My family or friends were not personally affected by this tragedy, but call it nationalism or whatever, but we try to share the grief together.”

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South Korea traumatized, shamed by ferry disaster

The tragedy creates shame throughout the country over the crew's actions and cruel hoaxes.

April 24, 2014: Soldiers secure the area outside a hospital in Kabul where three American doctors were killed by an Afghan guard. (Reuters)

The shooting at Cure International Hospital in the western part of the Afghan capital was the latest attack on foreign civilians in the city this year.

"With great sadness we confirm that three Americans were killed in the attack at CURE Hospital," said a statement posted on the Embassy's Twitter page. "No other information will be released at this time."

The attacker was a member of the Afghan Police Protection Force assigned to guard the hospital, District Police Chief Hafiz Khan told the Associated Press. Khan said the man's motive was not yet clear.

The attacker was wounded and in custody. He was in surgery at midday in the same medical facility under heavy police guard, according to Kanishka Bektash Torkystani, a Ministry of Health spokesman.

"Five doctors had entered the compound of the hospital and were walking toward the building when the guard opened fire on them," Torkystani said. "Three foreign doctors were killed and two other doctors were wounded."

It was also unclear how the attacker was wounded.

According to its website, the Cure International Hospital was founded in 2005 by invitation of the Afghan Ministry of Health. It sees 37,000 patients a year, specializing in child and maternity health as well as general surgery.

It was unclear whether the Taliban were behind Thursday's shooting, though the insurgents have claimed several major attacks that killed foreign civilians this year, an escalation after years of mostly targeting foreign military personnel and Afghan security forces.

In January, a Taliban attack on a popular Kabul restaurant with suicide bombers and gunmen killed more than a dozen people, while in March gunmen slipped past security at an upscale hotel in the Afghan capital and killed several diners in its restaurant.

The hospital shooting is also the second "insider attack" by a member of Afghan security forces targeting foreign civilians this month.

On April 4, an Afghan police officer shot two Associated Press staff working in the eastern province of Khost, killing photographer Anja Niedringhaus and wounding veteran correspondent Kathy Gannon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

3 Americans killed in Afghan hospital attack

A security guard opens fire at a hospital in Kabul in the latest violence aimed at foreign civilians.
1 person wounded

By Aleksandar Vasovic and Alexei Anishchuk

SLAVIANSK, Ukraine/ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - U krainian forces killed up to five pro-Moscow rebels on Thursday as they closed in on the separatists' military stronghold in the east and Russia launched army drills near the border in response, raising fears its troops would invade.

Under an international accord signed in Geneva last week, illegal armed groups in Ukraine, including the rebels occupying about a dozen public buildings in the largely Russian-speaking east, are supposed to disarm and go home.

But they have shown few signs of doing so and on Thursday the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said its forces backed by the army had removed three checkpoints manned by armed groups in the separatist-controlled city of Slaviansk.

"During the armed clash up to five terrorists were eliminated," it said in a statement, adding that one person had been wounded on the side of the government forces.

A rebel spokeswoman in Slaviansk said two fighters had died in a clash in the same area, northeast of the city center.

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A Ukrainian security force officer is deployed at a checkpoint set on fire and left by pro-Russian s …

The Kremlin has built up forces on Ukraine's border - estimated by NATO officials at up to 40,000 troops - and maintains it has the right to protect Russian-speakers if they come under threat, a reason it gave for annexing the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine last month.

In St Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that if the authorities in Kiev had used the army in eastern Ukraine, this would be a very serious crime against its own people.

"It is just a punitive operation and it will of course incur consequences for the people making these decisions, including (an effect) on our interstate relations," Putin said in a televised meeting with regional media.

His spokesman said later that the violence threw into doubt the legitimacy of a presidential election planned by the pro-Western transitional authorities in Kiev for May 25.

Reuters journalists saw a Ukrainian detachment with five armored personnel carriers take over a checkpoint on a road north of Slaviansk in the late morning after it was abandoned by separatists who set tires alight to cover their retreat.

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A Ukrainian security force officer is deployed at a checkpoint set on fire and left by pro-Russian s …

However, two hours later the troops pulled back and it was unclear if Kiev would risk storming Slaviansk, a city of 130,000 that has become the military stronghold of a movement seeking annexation by Moscow of Ukraine's industrialized east.

"FINISH WHAT WE HAVE STARTED"

At another checkpoint set up by the Ukrainian military, a soldier said they were there to instill law and order.

"Those separatists, they violated the constitution, they are torturing the country, they violated laws, they do not recognize the authority of police, so the army had to move in and we will finish what we have started so help me God," he said.

The Geneva agreement, signed by Russia, the United States, Ukraine and the European Union, was already in trouble as Kiev launched its offensive to regain control of the east.

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A Ukrainian security force officer is deployed at a checkpoint set on fire and left by pro-Russian s …

Moscow and the West have put the onus on each other to ensure the accord is implemented on the ground. U.S. President Barack Obama said earlier he was poised to impose new sanctions on Russia if it did not act fast to end the armed stand-off.

Putin said sanctions were "dishonorable" and destroyed the global economy but that so far the damage had not been critical.

Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow had begun military drills near the border with Ukraine, where it has deployed tens of thousands of troops, in response to "Ukraine's military machine" and NATO exercises in eastern Europe.

"Apart from that, the air force will conduct flights to train for maneuvers along the state borders," Shoigu said. Two local residents in areas near the Ukrainian border told Reuters they had spotted formations of attack helicopters in the air.

Moscow also flexed its economic muscles in its worst stand-off with the West since the Cold War, with the government suggesting foreign firms which pull out of the country may not be able to get back in. A source at Gazprom said the gas exporter had slapped an additional $11.4 billion bill on Kiev.

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Ukrainian security force officers walk past a checkpoint set on fire and left by pro-Russian separat …

Washington accuses Moscow of fomenting unrest in the east, where heavily armed separatists have occupied buildings since April 6. Russia denies it is responsible for unrest and counters that Europe and the United States are supporting what it considers an illegitimate government in Kiev.

Obama said the Russian leadership was not abiding by the spirit or the letter of the Geneva agreement so far. "We have prepared for the possibility of applying additional sanctions," he told a news conference in Japan.

U.S. TROOPS ARRIVE IN POLAND

So far, the United States and EU have imposed visa bans and asset freezes on a few Russians in protest at Moscow's annexation last month of Crimea from Ukraine.

In NATO member Poland, the first group of a contingent of around 600 U.S. soldiers arrived on Wednesday, part of an effort by Washington to reassure eastern European allies who are worried by the Russian build-up near Ukraine's borders.

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Ukrainian security force officers walk past a checkpoint set on fire and left by pro-Russian separat …

Acting Ukrainian President Oleksander Turchinov called for the eastern offensive on Tuesday after the apparent torture and murder of a town councilor from his own party, whose body was found on Saturday near Slaviansk.

A local opposition activist called on the police to clear up the death of Volodymyr Rybak, a member of the Batkivshchyna party who had remained loyal to Kiev. He disappeared after being filmed trying to take down a separatist flag while trying to enter town hall in Horlivka, a town near Slaviansk.

"He was bruised and punctured from head to toe ... it's clear they tortured him," said Aleksander Yaroshenko, a family friend who accompanied Rybak's widow when she identified his body at the morgue. "The police have lots of details, they have CCTV footage, they should know who did this," he told Reuters.

In an address to the nation on Thursday, Turchinov said: "Armed criminals have taken over buildings, are taking citizens, Ukrainian and foreign journalists, hostage and murdering Ukrainian patriots...At the level of the state, Russia is supporting terrorism in our country."

The government said the city hall in another eastern town, Mariupol, which had been seized by separatists, was back under central control. But a separatist crowd later surrounded the building, patrolled by police but otherwise apparently empty.

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Ukrainian security force officers are deployed at a checkpoint set on fire and left by pro-Russian s …

Kiev also reported a shootout overnight in another part of the east where a Ukrainian soldier was wounded. Pro-Russian separatists in Slaviansk are holding three journalists, including U.S. citizen Simon Ostrovsky.

Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, slid into unrest late last year when Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich rejected a pact to build closer ties with Europe. Protesters took over central Kiev and he fled in February. Days later, Russian troops seized control of Crimea.

NO WAY BACK?

The Ukrainian defence ministry confirmed its involvement in the operation around Slaviansk on Thursday, saying the troops involved were airborne units with experience of such tasks from international peacekeeping missions.

"The morale of our forces will allow them to completely fulfill their task of defending Ukraine," it said.

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People take part in a pro-Ukrainian rally in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine April 24, 2014. REUTERS/Vasily …

Unarmed mediators from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are in eastern Ukraine trying to persuade pro-Russian gunmen to go home, in line with the Geneva accord.

Reuters reporters have not been able to establish that any Russian troops or special forces members are in the region, though Kiev and Western powers say they have growing evidence that Moscow has a covert presence. Masked gunmen in the east, widely referred to as "green men", wear uniforms without insignia.

Putin has described as "nonsense" allegations that Moscow has its forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia says the unrest is a spontaneous protest by local people who fear persecution from a government it says has far-right links.

However, Moscow said the same was the case in Crimea last month, until Putin acknowledged last week that his troops were involved in the operation there.

(Additional reporting by Alexander Reshetnikov and Gleb Garanich near Slaviansk; Alissa de Carbonnel in Donetsk; Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets, Richard Balmforth and Alastair Macdonald in Kiev, Denis Dyomkin in Birobidzhan, Russia, Mark Felsenthal in Tokyo, Alessandra Prentice and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; writing by Christian Lowe, David Stamp and Philippa Fletcher, editing by Peter Graff)

Spring 2014 has been a quiet tornado season thus far, but that's about to change this weekend, if the predicted forecasts that meteorologists are looking at hold true. Weather experts say conditions are lining up for a series of powerful tornadoes to hit an area ranging between Tennessee and Texas from Saturday through Monday. The National Weather Service predicts a "significant multi-day severe event" in the South plains on Sunday, moving into the Mississippi Valley on Monday.

The extreme warnings stem from an interaction between an East-moving low-pressure system over the Rockies mixing with wetness from the Gulf of Mexico. That will cause the creation of supercell thunderstorms, Slate's Eric Holthaus explains, all kept in place in the South-Southwest by a high-pressure system in Canada. That makes the area ripe for a "big severe threat" this weekend, according to The Weather Channel, an extra level on top of today's "severe threat."

Holthaus notes that the best historical comparisons to a weather pattern like this point to some of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history. That includes the April 26, 1991, stretch of tornadoes from Texas to Iowa that caused a billion dollars in damage and included a rare F5-strength tornado. For those in need of a refresher,here are FEMA's guidelines for how to prepare for tornadoes.

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(Update: The Weather Channel's Tim Ballisty notes that our original top image showed a map of CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy) rather than The Weather Channel's severe weather forecast. We have updated the image to reflect that change.)

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/national/2014/04/forecasters-are-already-predicting-a-massive-tornado-outbreak-this-weekend/361156/

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'Big severe threat'

Last week, Russian President made an argument that parts of eastern and southern Ukraine are part of "Novorussia," an area gradually conquered by Russia in the late 18th century and made part of the U krainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union, in 1922.

"It’s new Russia. Kharkiv, Lugansk, Donetsk, Odessa were not part of Ukraine in czarist times, they were transferred in 1920. Why? God knows," Putin told reporters. "Then for various reasons these areas were gone, and the people stayed there — we need to encourage them to find a solution."

Basically, Putin wants those regions of Ukraine where ethnic Russians live to be in the Kremlin's orbit after a popular revolution toppled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and a West-leaning government was formed.

REUTERS

Currently, pro-Russia separatists who are suspected of being led by Russian special forces have commandeered several towns in these regions. Ukrainian authorities have killed at least two militants in an effort to reclaim a town in Donestsk, prompting Russia to ramp up military exercises on the border.

If tensions continue to escalate, expect more talk of "Novorussia" as Putin continues to insist that he has the right to intervene militarily in east Ukraine to protect the ethnic Russians.